The present invention relates to design support method and apparatus therefor, and more particularly to a design support method and an apparatus which enable a designer to rapidly retrieve design data and reflect restrictions on design references without failure.
In a prior art design support system as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-45575, a display screen for a design object and a display screen for an input menu of design parameters are independent from each other and design data is displayed on split screens or a plurality of CRT screens. In this system, rapid and accurate entry of the design parameters is permitted but no consideration is paid to the checking of the validity of the design parameters. In Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-66763, piping data are retrieved by a computer designed for piping path design and a pipe interval is calculated on the basis of pipe diameters and thicknesses of heat insulating materials. In this system, design parameters are combined to introduce comparative values to design references and they are displayed but the comparison with the design reference for each pipe should be done by a designer.